Derrida. - RKMRC
Transcript of Derrida. - RKMRC
Derrida.
Jacques Derrida1930 – 2004
Of GrammatologyWriting & Difference
Speech & Phenomena1967
Context
Structuralismto
Poststructuralism,
via Phenomenology and Existentialism
Saussure: language and writing are two distinct
systems of signs: the second exists for the sole purpose of
representing the first
Derrida: all that can be claimed of writing – eg. that it is derivative and merely refers to other signs – is equally true
of speech
“post” structural because…
The structure of language reveals its own dismantling, NOT a “universal” structure
to reality
Deconstruction-A Strategy--A Method-
A way of reading texts that reveals the slippery and elusive nature of “truth”, “meaning”, and “author”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xyYGFhPDHo&feature=PlayList&p=D49B3109A97ED3CE&playnext=1&index=38
Derrida Interview
Deconstruction
Deconstruction only highlights what was already
in the text itself.
DifféranceThe “difference” is inaudible,
so it must be written
Meaning is differed
There is nothing that is being “referred” to
Différance
One can never reach a sign that refers only to
itself
LogocentrismThe drive to “ground” truth in
an ultimate origin
Logocentrism-metaphysics of presence-
“S is P”
“S is P”
Logocentrism“All metaphysicians, from Plato to Rousseau, Descartes to Husserl,
have proceeded in this way, conceiving good to be before evil,
the positive before the negative, the pure before the impure, the simple before the complex, the essential before accidental, the imitated
before the imitation, etc.” - Derrida
LogocentrismAn opposition of
metaphysical concepts (speech/writing,
presence/absence, etc.) is never the face-to-face of
two terms, but a hierarchy and an order of subordination.
Logocentrism
…the impossibility of an observer being absolutely
exterior to the object/text/being
examined…
Logocentrism
“The privileging of speech over writing.”
or
“The privileging of presence over absence"
Trace
Deconstruction leaves a “trace”, exposes a rupture, an
incongruity in the metaphysical illusion
VAN GOGH’S “PEASANT SHOES”
So…what?
For Derrida:*”there is nothing outside the text”*it’s all interpretation*there can be no “this is here now”*every text, every work of art at the same time reveals what it isn’t and what it claims to be